Avete mai provato a riflettere sulla forma impeccabile, per non dire perfetta, di cui facevano sfoggio le modelle delle stampe vittoriane ?
Sì, è vero che si trattava di meri disegni, ma riproducevano con fedeltà le silhouettes che era ordinario vedere, non solo in occasioni particolari, ma anche scendendo semplicemente in strada ...
Ah, che magie operava sul corpo femminile il corsetto,
così tanto detestato, ma così tanto amato !
Short corset - 1803 ca.
Per certo i corsetti più affascinanti appartengono al periodo vittoriano, quando la moda degli abiti recupera il punto vita ed, anzi, tiene a sottolinearlo ...
Non che fosse cosa granché semplice il muoversi ed il solo sedersi con una siffatta imbrigliatura che più era stretta più dava soddisfazione a chi lo vestiva
ma ogni sacrificio era degno e ben speso !
Vi era chi talvolta lamentava vertigini, soffriva di cattiva digestione e di bruciori allo stomaco, chi ancora soffriva di stitichezza o dissenteria, perché ovviamente la motilità gastroenterica era del tutto interdetta dal corsetto che strozzava il busto femminile, ma l'estrema conseguenza cui un uso esasperato del corsetto conduceva era la così detta patologia di Glénard, una vera e propria malattia indotta dal rilassamento dei mezzi di fissità di vari visceri addominali quali stomaco, intestino, fegato e reni che si spostavano verso il basso presentando disturbi alle varie specifiche funzioni.
Ma le Ladies vittoriane davvero non ci pensavano ... e tenevano il fiato a più-non-posso perché il loro girovita fosse il più sottile che mai si fosse visto !
Un abbraccio a voi, carissimi amici, lettori, 'viandanti' che vagate per il web e che vi trovate a passare di qui per la prima volta ...a voi tutti giunga il mio più profondo e sincero ringraziamento, ed un arrivederci
a presto 💕
FONTI BIBLIOGRAFICHE:
Eleri Lynn, Underwear: Fashion in Detail, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2014;
Valerie Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History, Yale University Press, 2003;
Norah Waugh, Corsets and Crinolines, Routledge, 1954.
- picture 1
Trying to outline a short history of it, it must be said that it was the Italian Renaissance to know the first bustier worn by Catherine de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and become Queen Consort of France and Regent Queen as wife of King Henry II of Valois: among the other things that she brought to France there was also the introduction of the use of this sort of bodice that at that time were dressing Italian ladies, the corset, who had an elongated shape and was worn under the clothing along with a material petticoat which had a circular shape that wrapped the sides of the body and which was intended to broaden and to give shape to the skirts.
Needless to say, this garment was greeted in France with a great enthusiasm and seen as essential to the beauty of the female figure: compressing the ribs and the chest, it lift up and claimed the breast leaving it 'free', and was generally made of stratified fabric, stiffened with glue, and was tied very tightly - just because they were made of material, renaissance corsets have not come to this day, although it must be remembered that there are some survivors corsets made of steel or iron commonly regarded as orthopedic busts worn with a corrective purpose.
By the mid XVIth century, corsets were to be considered a common garment among European and British women; they gradually began to include the use of a "busk", a long strip of wood or whale sewn inside a casing on the sides of the corset, to maintain its rigid form. The front of the corset was typically covered by a "bib", a rigid structure in the form of V that was subsequently sewn on the abdomen for decorative purposes.
But it was France, during the Age of Enlightenment, the XVIIIth century, to lead the corset at its peak: fine silks, brocades, satins were the privileged materials to package this little secret that made the upper body of each lady simply divine!
- picture 2 - Woman's corset c. 1730–1740. Silk plain weave with supplementary weft-float patterning, stiffened with baleen. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- picture 3 - French Corset, 1750 - 1775
The most common type of corset in 1700 was of inverted conical shape, often worn to create a contrast between a quasi-cylindrical rigid torso above the waist, and large and heavy skirts under it. The main purpose of the eighteenth century corsets was to lift and to shape the breast, to tighten the diaphragm, to support one's back, to improve one's posture and to help a woman to stand straight as much as possible, with her shoulders down and back, and they were only slightly narrow at the waist, to create a top of the V-shaped trunk on which the clothes had to be worn.
Beloved by Queen Marie Antoinette who, almost as if they were a hymn to her ambition, had a real collection of them,
- picture 4
- picture 5
they knew some sort of a decline with the beginning of the XIXth century, whose tunic dresses, light and floating down the body without touching the female forms, required very short corsets, which were almost bras, or even didn't require them at all.
- picture 6 - Short corset - 1803 ca.
For sure the most fascinating corsets belong to the Victorian times, when fashion clothes recover the waist and, indeed, want to emphasize it ...
- picture 7
- picture 8
- picture 9
- picture 10 - A riding corset from Harper's Bazaar, 1888
It was not something much easy to move around and just to sit down could be a little trouble with such a 'harness' which the more was tight the more it gave satisfaction to those who wore it
- picture 11
but every sacrifice was worthy and well spent!
There were those ladies who sometimes complained dizziness, suffered from indigestion and heartburn, who was suffering from constipation or diarrhea, because obviously the gastrointestinal motility was totally dumbfounded by the corset that squeezed the female bust, but the extreme consequence which an exasperated use of the corset led was the so called Glenard's pathology, a real disease induced by the relaxation of the means of fixity of various abdominal viscera such as the stomach, the intestine, the liver and the kidneys that moved downwards presenting disorders to the various specific functions.
- picture 12
- picture 13
But the Victorian Ladies didn't really think about it ... and were holding their breath to 'more-I-cannot' because they wanted their waist to become the thinner than ever a man had seen !
Hugs to you, dear friends, readers, 'travelers' wandering through the web and who are passing by here for the first time ... to all of you I extend my deepest and most sincere thanks, and
see you soon 💕
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOURCES:
Eleri Lynn, Underwear: Fashion in Detail, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2014;
Valerie Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History, Yale University Press, 2003;
Norah Waugh, Corsets and Crinolines, Routledge, 1954.
VINTAGE CHARM PARTY
PINK SATURDAY
OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD - WORN
Cercando di tracciarne una seppur breve storia, va detto che fu il Rinascimento italiano a conoscere i primi bustier indossati da Caterina de' Medici, figlia di Lorenzo Duca di Urbino e divenuta Regina Consorte di Francia e Reggente quale moglie del Re Enrico II di Valois: tra le altre cose che recò in Francia vi fu anche l'introduzione dell'utilizzo di questa sorta di corpetto che allora vestivano le dame italiane, il corsetto, che aveva allora una forma allungata e che veniva indossato sotto i vestiti insieme con una sottoveste di tessuto dalla forma circolare che fasciava i fianchi e che aveva lo scopo di allargare e dare forma alle gonne.
Inutile dire che tale indumento fu accolto in Francia con estremo entusiasmo e visto come indispensabile per la bellezza della figura femminile: esso, comprimendo il costato ed il petto, innalzava e sosteneva il seno lasciandolo 'libero'ed era generalmente fatto di tessuto stratificato, irrigidito con colla, ed allacciato molto strettamente - proprio perché erano di tessuto i corsetti rinascimentali non sono giunti ai nostri giorni, anche se va ricordato che esistono alcuni corsetti superstiti con struttura in acciaio o in ferro comunemente considerati come busti ortopedici vestiti a scopo correttivo.
Con la metà del XVI secolo, i corsetti vennero ad essere considerati un indumento comune tra le donne europee e britanniche. Tali capi gradualmente cominciarono a includere l'uso di un "busk", una lunga stecca di balena o in legno cucita all'interno di un involucro sul corsetto per mantenerne la forma rigida. La parte anteriore del corsetto era tipicamente coperta da una "pettorina", una struttura rigida a forma di V che venne successivamente portata sull'addome a scopo decorativo.
Ma fu proprio la Francia, durante il secolo dei lumi, il XVIII, a condurre il corsetto al suo massimo splendore: sete pregiate, broccati, satin erano i tessuti privilegiati per confezionare questo piccolo segreto che rendeva la parte superiore del corpo di ogni dama semplicemente divino !
Corsetto femminile c. 1730–1740. Tessuto di seta semplice con intreccio davanti dalla trama fluttuante, irrigidito con stecche di balena, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Corsetto francese, 1750 - 1775
Il tipo più comune di corsetto nel 1700 era di forma conica rovesciata, spesso indossato per creare un contrasto tra un torso quasi-cilindrico e rigido sopra la vita e gonne ampie e pesanti sotto di essa. Lo scopo principale dei corsetti settecenteschi era quello di sollevare e modellare il seno, stringere il diaframma, sostenere la schiena, migliorare la postura per aiutare una donna a stare dritta quanto più possibile, con le spalle verso il basso e indietro, ed erano solo leggermente stretti in vita, per creare di una parte superiore del tronco a forma di V su cui sarebbero stati indossati gli abiti.
Amatissimi dalla Regina Maria Antonietta che, quasi come fossero un inno alla sua ambizione, ne possedeva una collezione,
conobbero una sorta di declino con gli inizi del XIX secolo, i cui abiti a tunica, leggeri e scesi senza accarezzare le forme femminili, richiedevano corsetti molto bassi, quasi reggiseni, o addirittura non ne richiedevano affatto.
conobbero una sorta di declino con gli inizi del XIX secolo, i cui abiti a tunica, leggeri e scesi senza accarezzare le forme femminili, richiedevano corsetti molto bassi, quasi reggiseni, o addirittura non ne richiedevano affatto.
Short corset - 1803 ca.
Per certo i corsetti più affascinanti appartengono al periodo vittoriano, quando la moda degli abiti recupera il punto vita ed, anzi, tiene a sottolinearlo ...
Riding corset da Harper's Bazaar, 1888
Non che fosse cosa granché semplice il muoversi ed il solo sedersi con una siffatta imbrigliatura che più era stretta più dava soddisfazione a chi lo vestiva
ma ogni sacrificio era degno e ben speso !
Vi era chi talvolta lamentava vertigini, soffriva di cattiva digestione e di bruciori allo stomaco, chi ancora soffriva di stitichezza o dissenteria, perché ovviamente la motilità gastroenterica era del tutto interdetta dal corsetto che strozzava il busto femminile, ma l'estrema conseguenza cui un uso esasperato del corsetto conduceva era la così detta patologia di Glénard, una vera e propria malattia indotta dal rilassamento dei mezzi di fissità di vari visceri addominali quali stomaco, intestino, fegato e reni che si spostavano verso il basso presentando disturbi alle varie specifiche funzioni.
Ma le Ladies vittoriane davvero non ci pensavano ... e tenevano il fiato a più-non-posso perché il loro girovita fosse il più sottile che mai si fosse visto !
Un abbraccio a voi, carissimi amici, lettori, 'viandanti' che vagate per il web e che vi trovate a passare di qui per la prima volta ...a voi tutti giunga il mio più profondo e sincero ringraziamento, ed un arrivederci
a presto 💕
FONTI BIBLIOGRAFICHE:
Eleri Lynn, Underwear: Fashion in Detail, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2014;
Valerie Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History, Yale University Press, 2003;
Norah Waugh, Corsets and Crinolines, Routledge, 1954.
Have you ever tried to think about the impeccable, if not perfect shape, which showed the models of the Victorian prints ?
Yes, it is true that they were mere drawings, but they reproduced faithfully he silhouettes that was ordinary to see, not only on special occasions, but also just down the street ...
Oh, what kind of magic was operating on the female body the corset,
- picture 1
so much hated, but so much loved !
Trying to outline a short history of it, it must be said that it was the Italian Renaissance to know the first bustier worn by Catherine de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and become Queen Consort of France and Regent Queen as wife of King Henry II of Valois: among the other things that she brought to France there was also the introduction of the use of this sort of bodice that at that time were dressing Italian ladies, the corset, who had an elongated shape and was worn under the clothing along with a material petticoat which had a circular shape that wrapped the sides of the body and which was intended to broaden and to give shape to the skirts.
Needless to say, this garment was greeted in France with a great enthusiasm and seen as essential to the beauty of the female figure: compressing the ribs and the chest, it lift up and claimed the breast leaving it 'free', and was generally made of stratified fabric, stiffened with glue, and was tied very tightly - just because they were made of material, renaissance corsets have not come to this day, although it must be remembered that there are some survivors corsets made of steel or iron commonly regarded as orthopedic busts worn with a corrective purpose.
By the mid XVIth century, corsets were to be considered a common garment among European and British women; they gradually began to include the use of a "busk", a long strip of wood or whale sewn inside a casing on the sides of the corset, to maintain its rigid form. The front of the corset was typically covered by a "bib", a rigid structure in the form of V that was subsequently sewn on the abdomen for decorative purposes.
But it was France, during the Age of Enlightenment, the XVIIIth century, to lead the corset at its peak: fine silks, brocades, satins were the privileged materials to package this little secret that made the upper body of each lady simply divine!
- picture 2 - Woman's corset c. 1730–1740. Silk plain weave with supplementary weft-float patterning, stiffened with baleen. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
- picture 3 - French Corset, 1750 - 1775
The most common type of corset in 1700 was of inverted conical shape, often worn to create a contrast between a quasi-cylindrical rigid torso above the waist, and large and heavy skirts under it. The main purpose of the eighteenth century corsets was to lift and to shape the breast, to tighten the diaphragm, to support one's back, to improve one's posture and to help a woman to stand straight as much as possible, with her shoulders down and back, and they were only slightly narrow at the waist, to create a top of the V-shaped trunk on which the clothes had to be worn.
Beloved by Queen Marie Antoinette who, almost as if they were a hymn to her ambition, had a real collection of them,
- picture 4
- picture 5
they knew some sort of a decline with the beginning of the XIXth century, whose tunic dresses, light and floating down the body without touching the female forms, required very short corsets, which were almost bras, or even didn't require them at all.
- picture 6 - Short corset - 1803 ca.
For sure the most fascinating corsets belong to the Victorian times, when fashion clothes recover the waist and, indeed, want to emphasize it ...
- picture 7
- picture 8
- picture 9
- picture 10 - A riding corset from Harper's Bazaar, 1888
It was not something much easy to move around and just to sit down could be a little trouble with such a 'harness' which the more was tight the more it gave satisfaction to those who wore it
- picture 11
but every sacrifice was worthy and well spent!
There were those ladies who sometimes complained dizziness, suffered from indigestion and heartburn, who was suffering from constipation or diarrhea, because obviously the gastrointestinal motility was totally dumbfounded by the corset that squeezed the female bust, but the extreme consequence which an exasperated use of the corset led was the so called Glenard's pathology, a real disease induced by the relaxation of the means of fixity of various abdominal viscera such as the stomach, the intestine, the liver and the kidneys that moved downwards presenting disorders to the various specific functions.
- picture 12
- picture 13
But the Victorian Ladies didn't really think about it ... and were holding their breath to 'more-I-cannot' because they wanted their waist to become the thinner than ever a man had seen !
Hugs to you, dear friends, readers, 'travelers' wandering through the web and who are passing by here for the first time ... to all of you I extend my deepest and most sincere thanks, and
see you soon 💕
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOURCES:
Eleri Lynn, Underwear: Fashion in Detail, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2014;
Valerie Steele, The Corset: A Cultural History, Yale University Press, 2003;
Norah Waugh, Corsets and Crinolines, Routledge, 1954.
LINKING WITH:
BLUE MONDAY
TUESDAY WITH A TWIST
WORDLESS WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY FAVORITE THINGS
This blog-post was featured, I thank you sweetest Bev from the bottom of my heart *♥* !
TUESDAY WITH A TWIST
WORDLESS WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY FAVORITE THINGS
This blog-post was featured, I thank you sweetest Bev from the bottom of my heart *♥* !
PINK SATURDAY
OUR BEAUTIFUL WORLD - WORN
